UK Labour PartySeptember 2016 Analysis

Methodology

Study Parameters

Date Range: 01 January 2013 to 28 October 2016Posts Originating From: United Kingdom onlySocial Media Platform: Twitter only

Isolation of Relevant Data

We created 449 search terms including permutations of the party name, Labour Leadership since 1906 and all sitting Labour MPs as well as trending hashtags associated with the UK Labour party.This method identified 31,433,112 posts that match the search parameters.

Categorisation of Data

By manually training a learning algorithm we have categorised each piece of data into 7 categories and organised them into two groups:

conversation about the Labour party specifically - party negative, party positive, party neutral, party messaging conversation about Labour politicians and MPs - politician positive, politician negative, politician neutral

Overview - 2016 Year to DateYear to date (1 Jan to 28 Oct) we have isolated 13,884,522 posts related to the UK Labour party, originating from within the United Kingdom.

This is a 45.2% increase in volume compared to the same time period in 2015.01 Jan to 28 Oct ‘15 : 9,562,497

Over the 10 month study period we observed a 182% increase in relevant post volume.The last five months produced an almost 2.5 fold increase in volume of posts over the first five. 1 Jan to 31 May: 4,021,912 - 1 June to 28 October: 9,831,976 8 out of 10 posts relating to UK Labour focused on MP’s or politicians - the remaining 18% related to the UK Labour Party, its leadership in general, policies, members etc.

Year to date, this conversation had a reach of 72,387,000,000 potential impressions.

Overview - 2016 Year to Date

The significant growth in volume when comparing the first 5 months with the last 5 months can be ascribed to the referendum and party instability leading to a leadership challenge.

1 Jan to 31 May: 4,021,912 1 June to 28 October: 9,831,976

Outline - September 2016

Overview : The overview is a snapshot of the total conversation throughout the month of September 2016. This includes a timeline of volume, from which we can determine whether conversation has increased, decreased or stagnated. We can also pull summaries of the most commonly discussed topics.

Categorisation : We have classified each piece of data into 7 categories, organised into two groups - conversation about the party as a whole (party negative, party positive, party neutral, party messaging); conversation about politicians (politician positive, politician negative, politician neutral). This allows us to dissect the conversation in a granular and pragmatic way.

Demographics : Through powerful algorithms we are able to identify certain demographics, like age and gender, of a large portion of the contributors. We can also establish the location of the majority of authors irrespective of whether they have enabled geo-tagging.

Twitter Metrics : Here we take a deeper look at important metrics such as top hashtags, top retweets & top mentions, as well as most prolific authors and a calculation of total potential impressions.

Top Retweets : We have identified the top 3 reTweets for September 2016 where the original content was not created by the party, a politician or a Labour affiliated personality. We have also included some additional information regarding the authors as well as links to other platforms on which they have published content. (Facebook, Vine, Blogs, Books, News sites etc.)

Overview - September 2016

Highest Volume Day:24 September : 9.32% of total

Lowest Volume Day:30 September : 1.78% of total

We have isolated and analysed 1,555,281 posts from the UK for the month of September 2016.

Over the course of the month, we can see a 59% increase in volume of Tweets relevant to the Labour Party.

This is largely due to the leadership vote, lead up and aftermath, and the announcement on the 24th.

Categorisation - September 2016

04 September Politicians Negative 24 September

Politicians Positive

Demographic Metrics - September 2016

Greater London 32.88%North West 12.21%Yorkshire and the Humber 9.84%South East 9.15%South West 6.48%West Midlands 6.12%East 5.99%East Midlands 3.89%South Western 3.72%Eastern 2.51%North East 2.46%West Wales and the Valleys 1.74%East Wales 1.33%Northern Ireland 1.03%Highlands and Islands 0.39%North Eastern 0.26%

63.23% of posts had an identifiable location on a regional level.

65% of posts had an identifiable gender

24% of posts had an identifiable gender

>1% <1%

6%

92%

33% of the UK Labour conversation was contributed by women.

This is lower than the average UK conversation over the same period (46% female, 54% male).

Twitter Metrics - September 2016

Top Hashtags

Top MentionsMost Prolific Authors

10.46 billion Potential Impressions

Top Retweets - September 2016Independent journalist

Co-founder & editor-in-Chief of The Canary(@thecanarysays; Thecanary.co)“The team at The Canary believe a free, fair and fearless media is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, because for democracy to work, it requires informed consent from its citizens. We intend to help generate that informed consent by providing our readers with high-quality, well-researched and incisive journalism that holds power to account.” - The Canary

Author of the blog Scriptonite Daily

Author of Austerity: Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy.

Contributing author to:News InternationalistOpen DemocracyOccupy News Network

Top Retweets - September 2016

Actor, Comedian, Writer

Creative Director at ThatLot

Vine: David SchneiderWebsite: DavidSchneider.co.ukLinkedIn : David Schneider

Top Retweets - September 2016

Satirical Character

Official Website: gin-oclock.comFacebook Account: Royal Gin O’Clock

Author of: Gin O’Clock & Still Reigning

1.37m Twitter followers

1 to 7 September 2016 - Overview

Topic BreakdownLabour 28%Jeremy Corbyn 24%Keith Vaz 19%Owen Smith 9%Vote 7%UKLabour 6%Labour Leadership 3%Sadiq Khan 3%Labour Members 3%Labour MPs 2%Labour MP 2%Labour Leader 2%Home Affairs 2%

332,123 Relevant Posts26% Increase in Relevant Post

Category BreakdownPoliticians : 90% of total postsParty : 10% of total posts

⅔ Tweets about Labour politicians were negative

Volume Timeline by Category

Volume Timeline

Highest single day: 4 Sep with 20.51% of the total

Highest peak: 4 Sep with 63,659 posts negatively referencing politicians, in particular Keith Vaz.

1 to 7 September 2016 - Topics

1 to 7 September 2016 - Summary

332,123 Relevant posts were analysed.The single day with the highest volume was 4 Sep with 20.51% of the total.A 26% increase in relevant post was recorded over the course of the 7 day period.

Only 10% of the total posts were uniquely related to Labour as a party as opposed to 90% related to or referencing Labour MP’s or leaders. 2 out of every 3 Tweets about Labour politicians were negative.

Posts that negatively reference Labour politicians created the highest peak in category comparison - 63,659 posts on 4 September. This was almost exclusively related to Keith Vaz.

Of all the relevant posts, 19% mentioned Keith Vaz (tabloid expose), 3% mention Sadiq Khan (Fabric nightclub closure), 9% mentioned Owen Smith (Leadership contest) and 28% mentioned Jeremy Corbyn (myriad of topics).

8 to 14 September - Overview

301,974 Relevant Posts16% Decrease in Relevant Post

Category Breakdown86% Politicians14% Party

48.84% of Tweets about Labour politicians were negative, 38.37% were positive.

Topic BreakdownLabour 30%Jeremy Corbyn 28%Owen Smith 15%Labour Party 10%UK Labour 8%Grammar Schools 5%Labour Leadership 4%Emily Thornberry 4%Labour MPs 3%Labour Leader 3%Keith Vaz 3%Labour Members 2%Theresa 2%

Volume Timeline by Category

Volume Timeline

Highest single day: 8 Sep with 19.99% of the total

Highest peak: 11 Sep with 21,870 posts negatively referencing politicians.

8 to 14 September - Topics

8 to 14 September - Summary

301,974 Relevant posts were analysed.The single day with the highest volume was 8 Sep with 19.99% of the total.A 16% decrease in relevant post was recorded over the course of the 7 day period.

Only 14% of the total posts were uniquely related to Labour as a party as opposed to 86% related to or referencing Labour MP’s or leaders. 48.84% Tweets about Labour politicians were negative, 38.37% were positive.

Posts that negatively reference Labour politicians created the highest peak in category comparison - 21,870 posts on 11 September. There was statistically significant mention of Owen Smith, but the overwhelming majority of posts related to Keith Vaz.

Of all the relevant posts, 15% mentioned Owen Smith (Leadership debate) and 28% mentioned Jeremy Corbyn (Debate, grammar schools, climate change etc). Emily Thornberry (Murnaghan's “French Minister” question) and Keith Vaz (revelations and resignation) garner a fair number of mentions at 4% and 3% respectively. Grammar Schools (5%) was the only topical public-affairs issue.

dayvidart.com

15 to 21 September - Overview

311,178 Relevant Posts6% Decrease in Relevant Post

Category Breakdown83% Politicians17% Party

45.78% of Tweets about Labour politicians were negative, 43.37% were positive.

Topic BreakdownJeremy Corbyn 26%Labour Party 14%UK Labour 7%Owen Smith 6%Labour Leadership 5%Sadiq Khan 5%Labour MPs 4%John McDonnell 4%Labour Members 3%Labour Leader 3%Labour MP 2%Corbyn Supporters 2%Lib Dems 2%Tony Blair 2%

Volume Timeline by Category

Volume Timeline

Highest single day: 15 Sep with 16.63% of the totalLowest single day: 17 Sep with 11.94% of the total

Only 2.05% of the total relevant posts on 17 September were positively referencing the Labour Party.

15 to 21 September - Topics

15 to 21 September - Summary

311,178 Relevant posts were analysed.Daily volumes were remarkably stable : The highest volume day was 15 Sep with 16.63%, the lowest volume day was 17 Sep with 11.94% of the total. A 6% decrease in relevant post was recorded over the course of the 7 day period.

17% of the total posts were uniquely related to Labour as a party, a significant 70% increase from week 1 (1-7 September). 83% related to or referencing Labour MP’s or leaders. 45.78% Tweets about Labour politicians were negative, 43.37% were positive.

John McDonnel’s appearance on BBC Question Time was mentioned in 4% of all relevant posts, while Sadiq Khan was mentioned in 5% of posts.Mention of Owen Smith was reasonable stable throughout the week however, the 6% of relevant posts mentioning Owen were almost exclusively negative.

Jeremy Corbyn was top of mind for the authors of 26% of the posts, down slightly from previous weeks however still higher that the total number of posts mentioning Labour Party, UK Labour OR Labour Leadership - the three most prolific, Labour party-related, topics.

22 to 29 September - Overview 541,701 Relevant Posts40% Increase in Relevant Post

Category Breakdown78% Politicians24% Party

51.32% of Tweets about Labour politicians were positive, 35.53% were negative.45.38% of Tweets the Labour Party were positive, .12.5% were positive.

Topic BreakdownLabour 30%Jeremy Corbyn 28%Owen Smith 15%Labour Party 10%UK Labour 8%Grammar Schools 5%Labour Leadership 4%Emily Thornberry 4%Labour MPs 3%Labour Leader 3%Keith Vaz 3%Labour Members 2%Theresa 2%

Volume Timeline by Category

Volume Timeline

Highest single day: 24 Sep with 26.75% of the total

Highest peak: 24 Sep with 65,925 posts positively referencing politicians - almost exclusively Jeremy Corbyn

22 to 29 September - Topics

22 to 29 September - Summary

541,701 Relevant posts were analysed.The single day with the highest volume was 24 Sep with 26.75% of the total.A 40% increase in relevant post was recorded over the course of the 7 day period.

24% of the total posts were uniquely related to Labour as a party, an increase of 7% from the previous 7 day period. 1 (15-21 September). 78% related to or referencing Labour MP’s or leaders. 51.32% Tweets about Labour politicians were positive, 45.38% were negative.

Posts that positively reference Labour politicians created the highest peak in category comparison - 65,925 posts on 24 September. Jeremy Corbyn is, unsurprisingly, the focus of this conversation.

For the first time in the month of September 2016, mentions of Labour (30%) outperform individual politicians. Jeremy Corbyn was mentioned in 28% of relevant posts, as was Owen Smith in 15%. Labour Party (10%) and UK Labour (8%) round out the top 5 most mentions topics.

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